Getting In

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Quinn stood in a deserted alleyway dressed with not a soul in sight. There was a criterion to place Labyrinth exit points, and locations less visited by the non-magical people were high pointer— to be unseen exiting a Labyrinth exit point was paramount, and thus, every exit came with an area ward that sent non-magical eyes wandering in other directions. Moreover, there was a committee place that would regularly review the locations to adapt to the ever-changing non-magical world.

He stared at the wall covered with posters in front of him. The entire neighborhood had once been a booming residential area until it had been abandoned and was yet to be re-developed, making it perfect as an exit point.

'I wonder if this was the wrong way to get in,' he thought with a strand of worry. He hadn't been in the house he had sent Gerald to and only knew that address contained a Labyrinth door. He didn't know the layout, where the door was placed, or how it was hidden— the plan's success was heavily based on Gerald's ability to locate and discover the door.

Gerald. . . . He hadn't been chosen because of a reason; Quinn had simply chosen him because he was the first one he had found wandering around the ward boundary.

While the ward boundary stopped various magic, it didn't prevent mind magic from going through. And mind magic was one of Quinn's most dangerous weapons, and the moment he laid his eyes on Gerald, his mind was already in Quinn's hands. He shoved everything aside and targetted Gerald's most joyous and tragic memories, and to his surprise, he found something that hit both of those categories.

Trent— Gerald's late son. Little Trent had died at the tender age of five from a magical illness that had spurred quick and hard. The child's immune system and magic weren't able to sustain him until magical medicine could work its charm. . . and Trent had departed to his next great adventure.

The moment Quinn had found that button, he clicked it hard. He had weaved together his best work of mind and illusion magic to show Gerald a magical image of Trent that acted in the same way Trent had done in the memories with slight actions that would push the already emotional and distraught Gerald over the edge so that the mind magic could dominate the mind and Quinn could puppet him in any way he desired.

'Should I go back to check?' he wondered. There was a real chance that Gerald could panic and come back to check on Trent to see if his son was still there.

The wall in front shook, and a glowing outline appeared on the wall in the shape of a door. Quinn pushed himself off the opposite wall and walked towards the glow as the part of the wall changed into a stark red door with golden trim. Just like the Labyrinth doors could be hidden, the exit points could also be hidden and didn't have to be visible all the time.

The door was thrown open and Gerald burst out looking panicked. He turned his eyes over Quinn, and for a split moment, his eyes didn't even linger, but then he double-taked hard.

"I-Invisible Vigilante!" Gerald's body froze up from his feet, a paralysis traveling up his body. His eyes trembled as Quinn walked toward him. "No! Don't come near me! Stay away!"

Quinn raised his hand towards Gerald, but before he could even touch him, the spiraling Death Eater fainted. "Oh. . . well," Quinn touched Gerald's forehead and made sure that the man stayed in his current state. He then jammed the door to make it stay open so that he would have a way to enter and exit Hogsmeade at will without needing Gerald's help anymore.

He gave Gerald one final look before entering the house and saw what Gerald had done to find the door. The man had turned the house upside down, not a single thing in the room was in the correct place, and Quinn crushed broken glass pieces the moment he stepped inside the house.

"People can be so brutal and. . . uncivilized," he sighed. Quinn moved across the house and found a window. He peered out and scowled at the empty streets of Hogsmeade, and that too at morning— something you could only see on a big Quidditch game day, but today the reason was deeply sinister.

He had gotten in Hogsmeade, but the question now was what to do now that he was here. He couldn't charge in and start cutting down Death Eaters left and right; he couldn't even go hunting in shadows— not when there were innocent people in constant danger of a wipeout. Go after Voldemort? Now was not the time; there were things to do be taken before taking a stand against Voldemort.

'I should scout the village to get a better feel for the situation,' thought Quinn. As it stood currently, Voldemort was a secondary concern; the primary priority was the people taken as hostages— their safety was needed to be assured before anything. 'Not only are they too big of a number to be sacrificed,' Quinn couldn't lie and say he hadn't thought of collateral damage; alas, an entire village was a bit too large to be sacrificed and— 'Dumbledore won't fight without restraint if he knew that there was a chance to wipe out more than a hundred people. . .'

That's why he needed to clear the village of innocents. . . well, not him— he had people who would do that for him.

He had other motives in mind. . . .

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Hermione silently opened the door and hurriedly sneaked in before closing the door behind her. She breathed a sigh of relief and pulled down the Cloak of Invisibility from her body. Hermione looked at the room she had seen merely a couple of times in her seven years at Hogwarts. It was a layout much like her own Head Girl's Suite but bigger than the new residency that she had taken over this year.

"Hermione, is that you?" came a voice from inside.

"Yes, Professor Potter," replied Hermione as she walked to the voice and reached Lily, who was standing inside the kitchen of the Professors' Quarters that had been assigned to her when she took her position in Hogwarts. "Where are Ivy and the boys?" she asked.

"They're inside," Lily sighed and presented Hermione with a tray of refreshments. "Make them eat something, will you, dear. It's no use worrying about the things they're spinning their heads around."

"Yes, I will see to it," Hermione took the tray carefully.

Lily smiled, "How lucky is my Harry to have you." Hermione tinted red and looked away in embarrassment. "I'm going out to a Professors meeting; make yourself comfortable," said Lily, flicking her wand that set the kitchen utensils and cleaners into motion.

Hermione saw Lily off before heading into the living room and found her best friends sitting silently as if someone had passed away. "I brought food," she opened up. "You three should eat something; you had nothing at lunch." She placed the tray on the center table and sat beside Ivy, but none reached out for food, not even Ron. "Why are you three like this? Harry, you're not going to be given to Voldemort! Why are you needlessly thinking about that?"

"What else is there to think about?" Harry replied; there was a hint of furrow between his brows. "I know Dumbledore won't send me out even know matter what anyone says, and with him here, neither can I be forced out. . . but what if it's the only way?"

"What?" Hermione uttered with hurt in her voice. Ivy and Ron looked shocked, the former much more than the latter.

"There are so many trapped in Hogsmeade, and we have more here at Hogwarts. . . what if me going to Voldemort puts so many lives safely out of danger. . one in exchange for many seems logical, doesn't it," Harry said bitterly. "When the safety is ensured, Dumbledore can defeat Voldemort and—"

"Are you listening to yourself?!" Hermione stood up with clenched fists and stared with. "Voldemort won't die with the Horcruxes still around!"

"I know that, but Dumbledore kills Voldemort now; it will give everyone some time," Harry rebuked, looking Hermione straight in the eye and ignoring the increasingly darkening expressions. "The Diary and the Ring. . . two of the Horcruxes are already destroyed. If we take one that Quinn has, that'll make three. . . and if with me, it'll make four. . ."

There was a horrid silence in the room, but one look at three other than Harry would reveal that they had much to yell, and if not for the shock of the situation, they would've torn the roof off.

". . . That's already more than half. In the time it takes Voldemort to recover, the rest of the Horcruxes could be found, and with his fall, the Deah Eaters could truly be rounded up and put into Azkaban. . . not before we send them to Quinn to have them fixed."

"Shut up," Hermione glared at Harry.

"I agree with her," Ivy said. "You need to stop speaking right now. The more you speak, the worse you make things. You know what, shut down your brain and just stare at a wall or something, you idiot."

"Mate, thinking like that isn't going to help anyone," said Ron. "Even if you ask to be sent out, no one's going to let you. I'll be the first to stun your arse and lock you in the dungeons. . . so why even think of the pointless."

Harry looked up at Hermione, who looked more hurt than he had ever seen her. When Harry didn't say anything, Hermione stomped out of the room.

"Go after her, you idiot," said Ron.

Harry stood up and walked out to follow his girlfriend out of the room.

Ivy looked at Ron and asked, "Hermione was wrong; you don't have the emotional intelligence of a teaspoon, Ron."

Ron shifted to face Ivy, and instead of saying something she would expect him to say, he asked, "What is Quinn doing now?"

"Err. . . what?"

"Even I won't believe it if you told me that you haven't talked to him. What is the Invisible Vigilante doing now?"

Ivy studied Ron for a good long moment before asking, "Why are you asking?"

"Because it concerns my best friend. I don't know if he has told anyone where the Horcrux he has is. From what I've read about him in the papers and heard from you, he's surely trying to get involved. And if he's coming here, he might get caught and die. So, I want to know where the Horcrux is, so we can destroy. . . I will do it if that's what's needed"— Ron squinted his eyes— "You didn't think of that, did you," he sighed.

Ivy's face had turned the moment Ron mentioned the possibility of Quinn dying. "I-I. . ." she couldn't say anything.

"I know it's not an easy conversation, but ask him where it is. If he has put it somewhere, ask him how to get to it. If he's keeping it with him, tell him to hide it somewhere and ask him. Even if you don't think it's not going to happen. . . right now, right here, anything can happen," Ron got up and walked out of the room, leaving Ivy alone in the room.

She looked toward the door and gingerly pulled out the shrunken two-way mirror. She tapped it with her wand, and it began to flash. . . but the connection was never accepted by the other side.

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Quinn West - MC - Much things to do; no time to do them in.

Ivy Potter - Tough Position - W-Why isn't he picking up.

Harry Potter - Horcrux - I have to die one way or another. . .

FictionOnlyReader - Author - The thing with Gerald and Trent, I took from Rick & Morty— the car battery episode where Summer is protected by the car.

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The link is in the synopsis!